1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an atom cell, a method of manufacturing an atom cell, a quantum interference device, an atomic oscillator, an electronic apparatus, and a moving object.
2. Related Art
As an oscillator having long-term accurate oscillation characteristics, there has been known an atomic oscillator, which oscillates based on the energy transition of an atom of alkali metal such as rubidium or cesium.
In general, the operation principles of atomic oscillators are roughly classified into a system using a double resonance phenomenon by light and microwave, and a system using the quantum interference effect (coherent population trapping (CPT)) due to two types of light different in wavelength from each other. Both of the atomic oscillators are generally provided with an atom cell (gas cell) having alkali metal encapsulated.
As a method of manufacturing such an atom cell, there has been known a method of sealing a hollow section housing a compound including the alkali metal, and then heating to react the compound to thereby generate an alkali metal gas inside the hollow section as disclosed in JP-A-2013-007720 (Document 1). According to such a method, an unwanted gas in the hollow section can be reduced.
However, in the gas cell obtained by the method described in Document 1, there is a problem that an amount of alkali metal gas in the hollow section sealed decreases with time, and as a result, the frequency stability degrades.